Rating: 
Summary: SPRING BEGINS...
Review: A whole new season.The four Season sisters, Jillian, Robin (called Birdie), Rosie and Meredith (Merry) are a literary example of how blood really is thicker than water. The sisters, different in temperament and interest were the daughters of a high powered judge and an alcoholic mother. Jillian, b. 1955 is the rebel, the runaway. She has an affair at 16 and a child at 17. She is taken to a Catholic maternity home where she is forced to relinquish the custody of her daughter, b. 5/17/73. Birdie is the high powered doctor. A driven woman, she takes charge of everything and everybody. Her 15-year-old daughter, Hannah, a fat, insecure girl resents being ordered around and so does her long suffering husband, Dennis. Rose is the caretaker, the homebody. She remains in the family home to care for their retarded sister, Merry. A near drowing episode in a pool at 2 cost Merry the full use of her lungs and mind. Her sisters carried a guilt complex over her condition. The story opens with Merry's death. The family attorney, a truly wonderful man makes a video of Merry prior to her death when she states that she wants to find "Spring," the name she gave Jillian's daughter. Spring, the one season that none of the Season sisters was born in. Spring, the time of births and beginnings. The three surviving sisters confront old family demons and with the help of their angel of a lawyer, embark on a quest to find Jillian's daughter. This wonderful story is about forgiveness, acceptance and a whole fresh beginning. Birdie is able to reconcile with her husband, daughter and sisters; Jillian, the alcoholic model, the rebel is finally more grounded and Rose, the caretaker finds romance. The story is really about births and beginnings, Springs and fresh starts. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Four Seasons - Wonderful!
Review: Another book that I picked up in February of 2001 to pass the time while waiting for customers at the cash register of the Mom and Pop store I worked at. It was there, I was bored, so I read it. I didn't realize that I had read her other book (Book Club) until I was well into it. If I had, I may not have started it. In the typical fluff fashion (and anyone who has read my reviews knows how I feel about 'fluff'!), there were a lot of female characters 'turning on her heel' but thankfully, no 'hoydens'. It is basically the story of 4 sisters. Birdie - 'sensible' and married to a doctor, leading a life of quiet desperation. Rose - the recluse. Jilly - the 'wild one', and ex-model, who had a baby when she was a teenager. Merry - the last sister, who ended up brain damaged due to the sister's negligence (at least that's what I thought). Upon the death of Merry, the sisters are shown a videotaped last request that the feebled sister made, asking her sisters to "Find Spring!" which is Merry's code name for Jilly's illegitimate baby that was put up for adoption at a convent in Wisconsion. No one ever saw this baby, no one discussed it, but supposedly all the sisters knew about it. The sisters team up and head for Wisconsion, resolving all their childhood issues along the way. Birdie even starts an exercise program along with her teenage daughter, to which her daughter says something like, "I'll be buff when I get home." Sparking dialogue, wouldn't you say? Jilly manages to fall for the owner of the crappy motel they all stayed at. All the sisters end up making nice, find what they're looking for AND Birdie finds a way to make her marriage work - all in 3 freakin' weeks! I kept reading it because it makes me believe that if I can discipline my writing and organize it into 'x' amount of chapters, each with 'x' amount of words, problems and resolutions, that I can maybe finally make some money with my writing.
Rating: 
Summary: Spring, Summer, Winter and Snore...
Review: Another book that I picked up in February of 2001 to pass the time while waiting for customers at the cash register of the Mom and Pop store I worked at. It was there, I was bored, so I read it. I didn't realize that I had read her other book (Book Club) until I was well into it. If I had, I may not have started it. In the typical fluff fashion (and anyone who has read my reviews knows how I feel about 'fluff'!), there were a lot of female characters 'turning on her heel' but thankfully, no 'hoydens'. It is basically the story of 4 sisters. Birdie - 'sensible' and married to a doctor, leading a life of quiet desperation. Rose - the recluse. Jilly - the 'wild one', and ex-model, who had a baby when she was a teenager. Merry - the last sister, who ended up brain damaged due to the sister's negligence (at least that's what I thought). Upon the death of Merry, the sisters are shown a videotaped last request that the feebled sister made, asking her sisters to "Find Spring!" which is Merry's code name for Jilly's illegitimate baby that was put up for adoption at a convent in Wisconsion. No one ever saw this baby, no one discussed it, but supposedly all the sisters knew about it. The sisters team up and head for Wisconsion, resolving all their childhood issues along the way. Birdie even starts an exercise program along with her teenage daughter, to which her daughter says something like, "I'll be buff when I get home." Sparking dialogue, wouldn't you say? Jilly manages to fall for the owner of the crappy motel they all stayed at. All the sisters end up making nice, find what they're looking for AND Birdie finds a way to make her marriage work - all in 3 freakin' weeks! I kept reading it because it makes me believe that if I can discipline my writing and organize it into 'x' amount of chapters, each with 'x' amount of words, problems and resolutions, that I can maybe finally make some money with my writing.
Rating:
Summary: The Bond of Sisters
Review: Birdie, Jilly, and Rose, three of the sisters in the Season family, gather together to celebrate the life of Merry, the youngest Season sister, who has died.
Jilly returns home from Paris, where she has lived for the last twenty years. A once successful model, she returns home almost penniless.
Birdie, a successful doctor, is unhappy in her marriage, and domineering to her only daughter, Hannah.
Rose, Merry's caretaker, has a secret online friendship with a man whose online name is DannyBoy. She is at odds with what to do now with her life, now that Merry is gone.
After the funeral, the family lawyer sits down with the sisters to disclose Merry's last wishes. Merry's last wish is for the sisters to find Spring, the baby Jilly gave up for adoption 26 years ago. With this request, the past is opened up, and the sisters must decide how to honor Merry's request. Together they embark on a journey through the past, and separately they embark on private quests, as they determine the paths they must follow.
Rating:
Summary: The Bond of Sisters
Review: Birdie, Jilly, and Rose, three of the sisters in the Season family, gather together to celebrate the life of Merry, the youngest Season sister, who has died.
Jilly returns home from Paris, where she has lived for the last twenty years. A once successful model, she returns home almost penniless.
Birdie, a successful doctor, is unhappy in her marriage, and domineering to her only daughter, Hannah.
Rose, Merry's caretaker, has a secret online friendship with a man whose online name is DannyBoy. She is at odds with what to do now with her life, now that Merry is gone.
After the funeral, the family lawyer sits down with the sisters to disclose Merry's last wishes. Merry's last wish is for the sisters to find Spring, the baby Jilly gave up for adoption 26 years ago. With this request, the past is opened up, and the sisters must decide how to honor Merry's request. Together they embark on a journey through the past, and separately they embark on private quests, as they determine the paths they must follow.
Rating: 
Summary: Warm and Lovely Summer Read
Review: Here is a book that could be a cliche, but is not, because the four main characters (one of whom we know after death) are so original and so likeable. This is the story of the four Season sisters, hence the title of the book. The youngest sister, Merry, has passed away at 32 after a long illness as the book begins. As the remaining sisters convene at the family's aging Victorian house, all their long-time hurts, dreams, failures and successes are almost palpable as each grieves in her own way. It sounds like a million other books of this type, but a different twist makes it all brand new, and very interesting. That is the search for the illegitimate daughter of Jilly, the sister who went on to become a top model in Paris, and a minor celebrity. It turns out that at age 17, she was shunted off to a strict Catholic home for unwed mothers, and forced by circumstances, the time in which she lived, her unyielding parents, and the nuns themselves to give up her baby without being allowed to hold or see it. That momentous situation, it turns out, has colored the lives of all the sisters--even Merry, left brain damaged after a childhood accident. Her last wish was that Jilly and the other sisters find "Spring," the name she has, in her childlike innocence, chosen for the missing Season. This is not a deep and unforgettable book, but it is well worth reading, and simply perfect for the beach, which is where I finished reading with a long sigh and many tears. Go for it!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, Heart warming read!
Review: I enjoyed this book so much. I was in a deep reading rut when i came across this one in my pile of boooks to be read and it immediately grabbed my attention and wouldn't let go. What a wonderful story about sisters' relationships and self discovery! I will be reading more by Mary Alice Monroe.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, Heart warming read!
Review: I enjoyed this book so much. I was in a deep reading rut when i came across this one in my pile of boooks to be read and it immediately grabbed my attention and wouldn't let go. What a wonderful story about sisters' relationships and self discovery! I will be reading more by Mary Alice Monroe.
Rating:
Summary: Thoughts from a man
Review: I found the book, The Four Seasons, on my wife's bedstand and I picked it up just out of curiosity. An hour later I was still reading the book and finished it two days later. The story about four sisters who come together later in life is very intersting to me because I am an only child and I am always curious about how a larger family would interact, both in their childhood and older years. Take a look at this book. You won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Engrossing
Review: I purchased this book as a beach book and was not disappointed. This is the first work I have read by this author and immediately after finishing Four Seasons began to search for more books by her. This was a wonderfully woven tale of family tragedy and triumph as well as individual growth within the protagonists as women and as sisters.
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